Bread particles, in the form of crumbs and croutons, are used in a variety of food products, for example, fish coatings, chicken coatings, onion rings, meat patties, stuffing mixes, and as garnishes. The bread particles are generally produced by baking bread according to conventional yeast leavening procedures, allowing the bread to stale and then comminuting the stale loaf to the desired particle size. The time required for staling is normally about 1 to 3 days, necessitating a large storage space for the loaves while staling occurs, and the rehandling of the same, with interrupted unit processes thus being involved.
It has previously been suggested to utilize added gaseous materials, such as, carbon dioxide, for leavening of bread in place of yeast leavening. The use of continuous mixers in combination with added gaseous materials also has been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,176 to Baker. In the latter patent, flour and water are premixed to form a slurry, the slurry is transferred by a supply hopper and a pump to a continuous mixer to which gas is introduced to form a continuous dough. The introduced gas is said by this patent to be used to raise the dough in subsequent baking to avoid the use of any yeast or ferment.
While the latter procedure is useful in decreasing substantially the overall baking time for a bread product, as compared to conventional procedures, the premixing of the components to form a slurry is time consuming and the total exclusion of yeast or other ferments prevents the use of the flavour and texture enhancing properties thereof.